Co-leader doesn't lack sureness

VIENNA -- Something has been lacking in Jean Bartholomew's game this LPGA season. Her confidence, however, is not.
Bartholomew will look pressure in the eye today -- and Annika Sorenstam as well -- when she tees off on No. 1 at Squaw Creek Country Club today in the final group.
F-i-n-a-l g-r-o-u-p. Read that slowly. Let it soak in. Jean Bartholomew will, because she hasn't been in that position for quite some time.
"It's been a while," she admitted after tying the course record Saturday with an 8-under-par 64.
"I was leading the U.S. Open [in 1995]. [But] I obviously have not been playing very well the last year and a half."
Bartholomew blames her poor play on her ball striking. She ranks in the upper echelon of the Tour in distance off the tee, but she's ranked no better than 110th in any of seven other categories.
Her 30.57 putts per round, for instance, is only 110th-best on Tour, and her scoring average (73.83) is 117.
"It's hard to have good tournaments and three good rounds when you're not hitting it well," she says. "You might get away with it for a couple of rounds and then eventually bad balls catch up with you."
Has made few cuts
Bartholomew has made the cut in only two of her 10 previous tournaments this year. She tied for 13th place at The Office Depot Championship Hosted by Amy Alcott, a three-round event in which she shot 77-74-69.
About a month later, in early May, Bartholomew tied for 55th place at the Michelob Light Open, shooting rounds of 72-71-73-77.
"I just think a lot of hard work is paying off," she says. "I've been working hard on my game -- I've probably spent more hours at the course than anyone.
"It's been a grind, but you've got to keep the attitude that it will finally pay off, and I think it is now."
Sometimes, though, the little things still get to Bartholomew that throw her off her game. On Friday's first round, she was on her way to a sub-70 round when she had a bad lie on No. 12 that required a ruling.
Unhappy with the LPGA official's decision, Bartholomew became unnerved and finished with a triple-bogey 6. She birdied the next two holes but bogeyed 15 and parred out to finish with a 71.
"The whole area was casual water, I thought, because my ball was in the pathway where everybody walks to the next tee," she explains. "I just lost my temper; I was so angry.
"We disagreed on where the relief was. Basically, when I dropped the ball it splashed, so you tell me that's not casual water."
Pressure on today
The rule of thumb is casual water is called when a player steps and water comes over the tops of her shoes.
"I guess I should weigh about 20 pounds more," he laughs, "then I would have got [the] casual water [ruling]."
That extra weight could be in the form of the proverbial monkey on Bartholomew's shoulders today. For a while Saturday, it looked as though she would be in the final pairing with Annika Sorenstam.
But Rachel Teske also finished at 9-under, relegating Sorenstam to the second-to-last group.
Still, it was fun to listen to Bartholomew put a positive spin on the player a lot of fans will be watching today.
"I think the pressure is on [Sorenstam] -- everyone expects her to win.
"Playing with Annika you're going to get the galleries and the cameras and everything. I'm sure I'm going to be nervous, but, if I wasn't nervous, [then] why am I doing this?
"It's going to be a great challenge for me mentally, I think, to see if I can go out and have fun and do my game."
XRob Todor is sports editor of The Vindicator. Write to him at todor@vindy.com.